Protective coverings for placement over the finished surfaces of sanitary fixtures such as bath tubs, lavatories, sinks, and miscellaneous sanitary fixtures, are well known. The primary purpose of such protective coverings is to protect and preserve the very costly and highly finished surface of the sanitary fixtures (i) during installation thereof, (ii) during construction of the building and/or (iii) during remodeling of the bathroom or restroom, into which the sanitary fixtures are installed.
Such protective measures are very important for several reasons. For one, regardless of how careful workmen in the building trade are, while working around the sanitary fixture it is inevitable that during the construction of the room after the sanitary fixture has been set in place, all kinds of material, tools, sand, tile, and the like are thrown onto the sanitary fixture (e.g., bathtub) and workmen with their heavy work shoes stand in the sanitary fixture thereby scratching the finished surface and in many instances chipping the enamel. Clearly, a sanitary fixture with a chipped, scratched, marred, nicked, or otherwise damaged finished surface is worth significantly less to its purchaser, and in most instances, the consequences of such damage to the finished surface is that the owner will not accept the sanitary fixture. This often necessitates that the plumber or other contractor (i) repair the finished surface using expensive surface refinishing processes which never produce a surface as good as the original surface, and in worse cases, (ii) remove the damaged sanitary fixture and replace it with a new one, resulting in significant loss to the contractor held responsible. In addition, as a result of the damaged sanitary fixture, disputes often arise as to who damaged the fixture, ending often without satisfactory results.
Hitherto, a variety of prior art protective covers for bathtubs have been proposed, and are generally described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,571,335; 2,575,236; and 3,460,167.
However, prior art protective covers have failed seriously from protecting the finished surfaces from damage for a variety of reasons, and the universally accepted prior art method of protecting the finished surface of a sanitary fixture, likewise suffers from numerous shortcomings and drawbacks.
In particular, since prior art methods of bathtub surface finish protection involve shipping bathtub surface protectors separately from the tub, it is not uncommon for the tub surface protector to arrive on the installation or construction site well after the tub has been placed in position, thereby leaving the tub surface susceptible to damage until the tub surface protector is eventually installed.
It has also been characteristic of prior art methods to require placing a protective cover within a sanitary fixture (e.g. a bathtub) only after the bathtub has been set in position and before the tile has been placed or the painting finished.
Also, prior to placement of the prior art protective covers upon the finished surfaces of a bathtub, it is common for debris including sand and other fine particles, to find their way between the finished surface and the prior art bath tub surface protector. In such situations, relative movement between the finished surface and the bathtub surface protector, due for example, to the movement of a workman's feet standing in the bathtub, results in "sandpaper action" on the finished tub surface, thereby causing severe damage to its finish.
While the shape and materials of such prior art bathtub protective covers differ in a variety of respects, in general, nearly all of these protective covers typically have a common shape which is intended to fit all sizes and geometries of a particular sanitary fixture. However, since inconsistencies in fit occur, such protective covers poorly fit almost all sanitary fixtures, thus leaving the sanitary fixture susceptible to damage as discussed hereinabove.
The prior art surface protectors intended to fit all size bathtubs, suffer from other shortcomings and drawbacks as well.
In particular, such prior art surface protectors have surfaces which obviate conforming generally to the surface geometry of the finished surfaces of the sanitary fixture, and instead, provide a "box-like" compartment or empty space about them, which are structurally weak and cannot be stood upon by plumbers, electricians or other workmen, and thus require conspicuous markings such as "DO NOT STEP HERE" and the like.
Also, since installation of some bathtubs occurs prior to the completion of the walls and roof of the building, rain often fills up a portion of the bathtub into which prior art tub surface protectors have been installed, thus ruining the material from which the protector is made and/or loosening the adhesive material used to hold the tub protector in place on the finished tub surface. Thus, when workmen come on the site for installation and construction, the water-saturated bathtub surface protector is incapable of providing necessary finished surface protection.
Prior art bathtub finished surface protectors suffer from further shortcomings and drawbacks. For example, on the one hand, since some prior art bathtub surface protectors are made from ordinary cardboard, rain and other natural elements upon the surface protector tend to break down or otherwise deteriorate the material of the surface protector prior to and/or while workmen are standing on and working over such tub surface protectors. The natural consequence of this, is of course, that prior art bathtub surface protectors constructed in this manner afford little, if any, protection to the finished surface of the bathtub.
On the other hand, prior art surface protectors made from plastic films and other materials are not biodegradable and thus are not easily disposed of, and therefore can contribute to environmental and safety problems.
Accordingly, there is a great need in the sanitary fixture art and construction industries, for a new method and apparatus for effectively protecting the finished surfaces of sanitary fixtures, while overcoming the shortcomings and drawbacks associated with prior art methods and apparatus.
Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel method of protecting the finished surfaces of sanitary fixtures, during installation and building construction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for protecting all of the finished surfaces of a sanitary fixture, while providing improved cushioning and impact absorption.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such apparatus in the form of a bathtub protector having a geometry which conforms generally with the surface geometry of the finished surface to be protected during installation and construction.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a bathtub surface protector which is water-resistant.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a surface protector for protecting the finished surface of a sanitary fixture.
Yet an even further object of the present invention is to provide a finished surface protector which is "reversible" for protecting both "left-handed" and "right-handed" bathtubs.
Other and further objects of the present invention will be explained hereinafter, and will be more particularly delineated in the appended claims, and other objects of the present invention will hereinafter be apparent to one with ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains.